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Henry Gonzalez

Writing ACE 2

8 June 2019

Mrs. Johnson

Defining Two Genres in One Way

Genres consist of different conventions that target a specific audience. Understanding

these conventions is essential in being able to successfully translate a piece of writing from one

genre to another. For this essay I decided to translate the love poem, “O my Luve’s like a Red

Rose, Red Rose” by Robert Burns, into a sports article about Barcelona’s tragic loss in the semi-

finals in the Champions League. The Champions League is considered as one of the biggest sport

tournaments within Europe. Therefore, after Barcelona’s unexpected lost, soccer fans across

Europe were shattered. Fans expected Barcelona to win over Liverpool after Liverpool had lost

two of their best players due to injuries. In translating this piece, I had to analyze the conventions

of each genre. I had to shift the audience from young adults to an also more elderly and educated

group of people due to the genre translation. Along the process, I identified similes and

hyperboles as common rhetorical devices used. This allowed for a smooth start of the translation.

The difference of both pieces of writing will be conspicuous once I reflect upon their

conventions and their development of imagery and diction.

Poems are concise and effective in targeting an audience with the author’s purpose.

Within the primary resource, “O my Luve’s like a Red Rose, Red Rose,” the author writes about

the passionate love that he has over a woman, despite him behaving distant at times. The poem is

constructed with the use of similes that leads to the establishment of Burn’s ethos. An example

of the simile used within the poem is when Burn compares his love to a “newly sprung” rose to
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imply that their relationship is new and welcoming. The author’s use of the simile within the

poem leads the audience to focus upon the status of the relationship. Moreover, Burn describes

how the “luve is like a melody that’s sweetly played in tune” to enforce the belief that the setting

between him and the woman is romantic and pleasing like a euphonious sound. As I analyzed

sports articles for their components, I discovered that the use of a simile was not as prevalent, but

still noticeable. In order to add a simile into the article, I decided to have the author from the love

poem symbolize the team and the lover symbolize the fans. The simile was in relation to the

chants from Barcelona fans as the Barcelona team described them. These chants were expressed

by the team “as beautiful singing coming from angels around the stadium.” In developing the

simile, I’m able to describe a pleasant-like euphoric setting for the winning team as they went

into the second leg with a lead of three to zero against Liverpool. When imbedding the simile

into the sports article, I was able to develop a common ground and establish a romantic

relationship between the fans and the team. Like how it was done by the author in his love poem

to his lover.

Aside from similes, hyperbole is another efficient rhetorical device for both love poems

and sports articles. Within the primary resource, Burns states, “And I will luve thee still, my

dear, Till the seas gang dry. Till the seas gang dry, my dear, I will love you.” The poet uses this

antimetabole to emphasize the extent of his love. Within the antimetabole, there’s a hyperbole

regarding how much Burns loves his lover. The exaggeration of Burn’s love for this woman is

conspicuous since seas take decades, if not centuries, to dry out. Moreover, another use of

hyperbole is when Burn writes about how he is so deeply in love that he’s willing to love this

woman until, “the rocks melt wi’ the sun.” The exaggerative figurative language used

successfully describes his deep love to his lover. Within sports articles, I found hyperbole as a
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dominant rhetorical device used by authors. Most of these examples of hyperboles were

consisted within the title of the article. This allows authors to successfully grab the audience’s

attention. The copious amount of hyperbole use in both genres led to a smooth translation from

the love poem into the sports article. It was as simple as writing, “Barcelona Dies at the Semi-

Finals!” Using a hyperbole keeps the audience to continue reading. Burn exemplifies the

effective use of this rhetorical device across his poem to have his lover continue reading.

An important change that was made during the translation was, exemplifying each

genre’s development of imagery. This would be either through contextual words that elicit an

image to the audience or actual images that depict the situation for the audience. In the love

poem, Burns writes about saying “fare thee weel, my only luve! And fare thee weel awhile!”

This quote, accompanied by contextual words such as “the seas,” “the sands,” and “the sun,”

illustrates an image of Burn’s departure from his lover along the sea, acting distant from what

can be assumed from the feeling of dissatisfaction from the woman. As I analyzed sample of

sports articles, I discovered that they were prevalent with images and facts rather than short

stanzas that consisted of concise contextual words. Therefore, I provided images with captions

and short informative paragraphs about fans going through their ups and downs with their team.

An image chosen for the article was about Barcelona’s fans walking out of the stadium early as

their team was down four to zero, with ten minutes left to be played. The final score ended up

being four to three for Liverpool. During this process, I acknowledged the impact that imagery

has on shifting or expanding an audience. For example, in McClouds genre translation, “Writing

with Pictures,” he translates an informative article filled with procedures about effective writing

into a comic book filled with in depth drawings (pg. 10) to help his audience understand the

procedures of effective writing. The effect of having added drawings has elicited a younger
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audience to also be targeted aside from the targeted audience which can be assumed to be young

adults such as college students as well as professors. In my essay, the audience expanded from

young adults to also elderly and educated people due to the facts and jargon provided. Extending

the targeted audience allows an author to satisfy their purpose of bringing awareness to the topic

at hand.

Finally, the last rhetoric device that distinguishes the love poem from the sports article is

diction. Within the poem, Burn structures his stanzas around rhyming. The rhyming serves to

have the essay flow fluently. Within the article “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process:

What Were You Thinking?” by Sandra L. Giles, the author brings up the importance of

maintaining sentence rhythm. Within the last stanza, Burns demonstrates this when writing,

“And fare thee weel, my only luve! And fare thee weel awhile! And I will come again, my

luve, though it were ten thousand mile.” In this case, the beautiful rhyme scheme allows him to

successfully comfort his lover as he temporarily departs. In bringing her comfort, Burn

strengthens his relationship before saying farewell. However, Burn intends to come back again to

keep her complacent and at ease. Within the soccer article, the discrepancy I noticed was the

evident lack of a rhyme structure. However, instead I metaphorically connected the similar

situation amongst both genres by writing about the fans becoming distant as the stadium emptied

out during the Champions League game before ending. Despite the fans being heartbroken, just

like the woman in the poem, the relationship amongst the fans and team will soon reconcile

because deep down the fans love their team in their ups and downs.

When reviewing the prompt I was perplexed on how it was going to work. I had an idea

of what I wanted to choose from when it came to genres, but not how to write it. Eventually after

coming across multiple examples of love poems and sports articles, I was able to distinguish
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their evident rhetorical devices. I learned that love poems tend to lean towards a much younger

audience with a structure that consists of rhyming stanzas. Moreover, poems consist of words

that illustrate visuals rather than providing actual images. To make up for the lack of

contextualized words, I decided to implement informative and historical information within the

sports article, accompanied with actual images. Similarities were easy to distinguish and

therefore helpful when it came to translate the primary source. The skills needed to perform the

translation include perception and having the ability to understand who’s the targeted audience.

Understanding each genre and their conventions helped determine the purpose of each rhetorical

device implemented. For example, the use of hyperbole within both the love poem and sports

article carried the purpose of having the author’s targeted audience attention. In the love poem,

the purpose is to establish an emotional connection with an audience. This emotional connection

allows for the ability to persuade an audience with the authors claim. In the other hand, the

purpose of a sports article is to inform about what occurs between the team and their fans. Both

genres are distinct and effective in their own way. Based upon their conventions and rhetorical

strategies, it is evident that they differ in audience and in purpose. Overall, this essay was

insightful in helping varied identify purposes through rhetorical strategies, thus making it

enjoyable.
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Works Cited

Burns, Robert. “A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation,

1794, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43812/a-red-red-rose.

McCloud, Scott. “Writing with Pictures.” Writing 2 Reader. UCSB: Alternative Digital Printing,

2016 8-57. Print.

Sandra L. Giles. “Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?”

Writing 2 Reader. UCSB: Alternative Digital Printing, 2016 8-57. Print.